The Results & Post-Mortem

Goa Opinion Poll

The Results & Post-Mortem

The source of the following statistics is a book on the Analytical study of the Opinion Poll voting pattern named as GOA OPINION POLL compiled by five writers namely, Suresh G. Amonkar, Pundalik G. Gaitonde, Eufemiano Dias, Gurudas Duclo and Mohan Tamba. The discrepancies in the total number of votes seen in the table and the below mentioned tally is probably errors in the compilation of the statistics.

In the final analysis it was noted that nine constituencies polled over 90 percent of votes, 13 constituencies polled over 80 percent of votes and the remaining six constituencies polled over 70 percent of votes. Mormugao drew a majority of 16,000 voters amongst all the constituencies, while Diu with 5, 948 drew the least number of voters.

Main reasons attributed for the defeat of the pro-merger forces were as follows:

The MGP was not well organized.

There was a split in the MGP leading to loss of its voter bank in the Opinion Poll.

In the three years of its rule before the Opinion Poll, MGP was beset with misrule.

Newspapers all over India like 'The Mall from Madras, The Hindu' from Madras, 'The Statesman' from Calcutta, 'The Times of India from Bombay, 'The Free Press Journal from Bombay, The Hindustan Standard from Calcutta, 'The Deccan Herald from Bangalore, The Hindustan Times' from Delhi and 'The Indian Expressfrom Bombay covered the build-up, the conduct and the post-Opinion Poll scenario in Goa extensively and each of them commented positively on the verdict of the Opinion Poll and its effect on not only Goa but similar other cases of Union Territories within the Indian Union.